Volume 3, Issue No. 47
OPINION/COMMENTARY
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .
Our latest as of Monday, April 25, 2022
~ Sheltering in the comfort of alleged not-for-profit organizations. proponents of a 2022 Taste of Manila festival continue to fail the smell test of transparency. The veneer they have built around themselves is dubious and only highlights the length to which they're willing to go to hide crucial information about themselves and the purported NFPs that would manage the event if ever it materialized in summer.
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PROMOTERS TEEM WITH IGNORANCE, INCOMPETENCE
Proposed 2022 ToM Is a Lie in Progress
By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ
Editor, The Filipino Web Channel
“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
―
TORONTO - There's enough public display of ignorance and incompetence to say the people proposing to mount a Taste of Manila (ToM) this summer are ill-fitted to handle such a monstrous job.
One embarrassing gaffe after another trails them while they promote themselves as the new agents of a street festival whose very concept was stolen from high officials by a driver sitting in at a conference and who later on declared it was his own. (Video at: (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_398v7dDQhQ). ).
In a nutshell, that was how ToM came into being. Rolly Mangante, the self-promoted ToM founder, worked as a chauffeur at the Philippine Consulate. Even as he held no significant position there, he had the chutzpah to claim he established ToM in 2014.
That was the first big lie.
Six yearly stagings later, a new breed of role players has burst from the rabbit holes of Little Manila, the busy neighborhood of Filipino stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and favorite hang-out of unlicensed vendors hawking backyard produce and kakanins. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/little-manila-is-where-rogues-rumours.html).
In one of the vintage buildings that had undergone countless refurbishings dwell the offices of three ghostly not-for-profit organizations that include a small room disguised as a social media station and radio outlet for a quartet of talking heads, namely, Cecille Araneta, Ramon Datol aka Mondee, Rolly Mangante, and Danna Luna aka Lovely.
Each has already made a name even before ToM could launch.
The chubby, all-smiling Araneta, allegedly the president of International Entertainment Company (IEC), has attracted some discomfiture for ignorantly declaring that the jeepney is "the national car" of the Philippines.
She's loose if not untouched with bits of history. What she said sounded funny but is actually wrong, thus eliciting a quip from commentator Frank Luna: ". . . and the tricycle is the national taxi". (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdTnX700_a8). Ha ha ha.
The short and stocky Ramon Datol who really is not "that tall" in the order of things landed himself in a faux Guinness Book of Stupidities for unilaterally issuing a "ruling" on copyrights extricating his group after they were caught red-handed stealing video content from my YouTube channel.
Foaming at the side of his mouth, he stated as if knowledgeable in the law: "The Taste of Manila who owns the Taste of Manila owns any videos that have been shown . . . YouTube, Facebook, and any other application." (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd02DO503DU).
Datol had other fantasies. He saw himself as chief executive of the town of Richmond Hill, a part of the Greater Toronto Area which became a city in 2019, so he ran for mayor in the 2006 municipal election. He smiled broadly, extending from ear to ear when friends and supporters called him "mayor" Mondee.
The tease that turned honorific lasted for the duration of the election period. His aspiration crashed when the final votes came in. Out of four candidates, he landed fourth place with a paltry 962 votes compared to the thousands his opponents received.
But it wasn't this attempt for public office that is so well-remembered, neither its political significance nor the votes he garnered. What stayed in the public consciousness is the amount of moolah he raised for his candidacy.
The buzz - told and retold by people who did not want to be identified - is that soon after the polls, he rewarded himself with a vacation in some European destinations allegedly using the money acquired from election donors.
Rolly Mangante who loves being mistaken for consul general for overdressing the real consul general, and equally likes to be called "amba" for ambassador, had struggled to find the correct English word to express himself.
In one meeting, he decried the prospect of advancing money for payment of fees. Forking out money, he said, meant "abonizing" the amount from their own pockets and getting reimbursed later. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2020/01/3-in-1-who-is-amba-congen-consul-of.html).
For all her "pa-beauty" posturings, very few, if at all, knew Danna Luna aka Lovely was an "international reporter" for a Miami, Florida-based photographers association. Wow, that's impressive . . . if true.
I spent a significant part of my journalism career as a foreign correspondent for two worldwide news agencies but I swear I never heard of her. Maybe she has been covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and lately, in Ukraine. Be careful Danna. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/international-journalist-in-taste-of.html).
With their varying backgrounds and a tendency to mask things up, it is difficult to understand, let alone put trust in these people bent on remaking themselves through the convenience of a ToM festival. For one, the not-for-profit organizations and purported companies they represent are practically non-existent. (Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/04/who-exactly-is-going-to-run-2022-taste.html).
The proposal by the quartet, and I mean Araneta, Datol, Mangante, and Luna, to hold a ToM festival in summer is the second big lie, actually a lie in progress.
It's fraught with danger if I might say, to the city which (heaven forbid!) might partially fund it, to sponsors and vendors who could end up scammed, and to the community at large being led to believe they're supporting a Filipino venture for their welfare but is actually intended to potentially enrich the organizers.
The experience of past ToMs is a cautionary tale. An undetermined amount of cash went missing. Some organizers had flown the coop. Vendors sought refunds. Handlers came and went without notice. In the end, ToM had gone bankrupt.
The last thing I want to do is to ascribe ill motives to the group of Araneta, Datol, Mangante, and Luna. But there are outstanding questions and issues needing resolution. Who is funding them? Do they deserve assistance from the city?
If what Araneta said is true that ToM, as she stated "is not for me because I have money already", then what about the others who don't have money?
The implication of that statement is truly worrisome. Did she unwittingly spill the real motive for proposing to stage ToM? Is that not like saying that since one doesn't have money, so therefore ToM is for that person? Do they view ToM as a cash cow to be milked?
Araneta has not been forthright about her so-called non-profit International Entertainment Company (IEC). And neither are Mangante and company's alleged International Taste of Manila (ITM) under PESO or Philippine Community Events and Services Ontario, and "Taste of Manila 2021 Virtual Event Presentation" which are also claimed as not-for-profit organizations.
Luna, the alleged "international reporter" who supposedly owns a media house called "iLUV.tv" is just as shady as the company she purports to represent in ToM. Her website - www.lunatronix.ca - is forever unreachable.
If indeed they are NFPs, why is there a dearth of information about them and their officers? No track record exists that they have done some public events for the community.
From hours of research in available government records, all I can say is the absence of information like registration of NFPs, the list of officers, date of founding, etc. suggests the NFPs are obscure agencies banking on the say-so of the constantly-talking quartet.
What really is their end game? Money, and more money? (Copyright 2022. All Rights Reserved).
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